Tales of a HeartBreaker
by UltimaKeyblader
Summary: [One Year War Settting] Three young miners find a stockpile of Gundarium alloy in an asteroid, and are thrust into war as a result.
1. It Began Here

This is my first fic so please be nice…

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Mobile Suit Gundam, but I DO own the profile that I used to make this fanfic.

The year is 0079, Universal Century. The Principality of Zeon's forces have fought the

Earth Federation's militia to a stalemate. The Federation began to create its own Mobile Suits to

combat the ones created by Zeon. This operation was codenamed Project V. Project V is still 1

month away from completion, and Zeon is taking control of most of space. This is the story of

three young men, and the part they play in the One Year War. There will be sorrow, passion,

victory, defeat, and death…

Far out in space, on a lone mining asteroid…

"HEY!" the gruff looking mining captain yelled to his two wingmen, "Stop screwing around or I SWEAR you two will sleep with one eye open for the rest of your lives!"

"Chilllllllllllll cap'n!" the youngest of the three's voice cackled over the faulty radio, "I LOVE to mess around with Ralph, besides who doesn't? ...And don't say that you don't!

The captain remained awkwardly silent.

"Uh, Colal?" the third man, Ralph, muttered, "Come on! A **little** positive reinforcement would be nice here!"

"Hehehe…" the young one chuckled, "See, Ralph? **No one **likes you!" he then began to laugh uncontrollably.

"**THAT IS IT JAKE!**" Ralph screamed, "**YOU ARE GOING DOWN!**" he charged at Jake, eyes full of hate.

"STOP IT RIGHT NOW!" Colal yelled, flying his space worker ball in between the two of them, and holding them both back, "Before I get **really **angry."

"K-kay," Jake responded nervously, "B-b-back to work Cap'n."

The three of them worked their way into the asteroid returning to the same spot as every other day… Except today was special.

The three pods' claws were leisurely scraping away at the rock, searching for Gundariam Alloy, a super-hard form of metal that was in asteroids. Colal didn't know why the chief had a sudden interest in this, but this all started after an old, gray-bearded man with the Earth Federation symbol on his shoulder visited the asteroid five months ago. The chief has had them looking for any trace of this 'Alloy' ever since. All five months of looking and there wasn't a trace of the stuff. Colal thought it pointless, but didn't care what he was looking for really. He was actually kind of happy. He didn't have to work as much if they didn't find anything. He always found a form of central peace whenever he dug. Sitting alone, completely oblivious to the rest of the world. So peaceful… And Jake knew just how to ruin it.

"**I FOUND IT!!!**" Jakes voice screeched over the radio, "_**I. FOUND. IT!!!!!!**_"

"You don' mean…" Colal muttered, shocked.

"GUNDARIAM! GUNDARIAM! GUN! DAR! I! UM!" Jake was partying in his cockpit, proud of his discovery.

"Come on, Ralph!" Colal quickly flew over to Jake, seeing a huge chunk of metal rooted in the wall. 'This **must** have once been part of Luna II,' Colal thought to himself. 'Odd though, it's stuck in the wall… So how will it come out?'

"It's in too deep," Ralph stated the obvious.

"Thanks," Jake retorted, "Do you want to crap on anything else in my day or are you done?"

"Oh I'm _sorry,_" Ralph said sarcastically, "Maybe I should ju-"

"_**ENOUGH!**_" Colal bellowed, trying to prevent any problems. The others were immediately silenced. "Okay," he murmured almost inaudibly, "Let's get back to the top deck and get some help, then split the bounty with them."

Jake protested immediately. "No **WAY**! I am not splitting my reward!"

"Do you have any bright ideas, Einstein?" Ralph commented, " 'Cuz I sure don't…"

"Actually, I do! C'mon guys, to the deck!" Jake took off, and the other two reluctantly followed him.

---

Before long, the three were out of their Pods and waiting for Jake to get whatever it was that he came here for. Ralph followed Jake eagerly, trying to get a look at Jake's secret. Ralph Careener was the tallest of the three, but not the broadest. He was somewhat a klutz, and his body was covered in bruises as a result. His blonde hair was slightly lengthy, long enough to be pulled, as Jake often proved. He was born and raised on Earth, in America, coming to the asteroid shortly after his 26th birthday, almost a year ago. He had a small moustache close to his lip, but no beard.

"BACK!" Jake ordered, trying to find the secret in his VERY long footlocker. Jake Splinter was tall and wiry, but was still the smallest of the three. He was only nineteen after all! His straggly black hair went down to his shoulders, and he bore no facial hair at all. He lived his whole life on Side One, but his parents were from America, like Ralph.

Colal Canze just sat back and watched on, waiting to go and get the Gundariam. He always had an aura of mystery around him, and didn't tend to speak about himself. He was born on Earth, but when he was ten, he relocated to Side Seven and never returned to Earth since. His brown hair was crew cut, and he was clean shaven. He wore thin, rectangular, glasses at all times, and his accent was implacable.

"Here we go!" Jake emerged from the box with three long, military grade, 180mm cannons.

"Where'd you get THOSE from?" Ralph asked, astonished.

"I know a guy," Jake responded slyly. Each of them took their own cannons and went back to the Pods, "This will give us enough artillery to knock that thing outta' place!" Jake said as the three installed them on the top of their Pods, "Okay, whenever you're ready Cap'n, let's move out!"

---

When they returned to the site, the three readied themselves for the substantial reward. "ALRIGHT!" Colal blasted through the channel, "LOCK AND LOAD!" They targeted the rock, "READY…" Jake was grinning with anticipation, "AIM…" Ralph tightened his grip and clenched his teeth, "FIRE!" A deafening boom was heard throughout the tunnel, and smoke rose from the wall they just fired at.

"D-did we do it?" Ralph managed to mutter out, staring hopefully into the thick smokescreen, trying to get a look at the Gundariam they just blasted away.

---

The three Zaku II pilots were patrolling their sector, waiting until they could return to the Musai-class warship, the _Wasp_. "Hmph," the leader of the three blurted out, breaking the long silence, "I don't see why they have us do this, there is never anything to find!"

"'Tis true Renegade!" his Irish wing mate, Patrick Jennings, responded. "But a'hd rather be scanning 'round here this be put on med-duty back on the _Wasp_!"

"Yea…" the chestnut colored pilot, Zola Buffeng, added, "Our boys were more torn up then Reginald's Zaku I after Char went to town on it!"

"Don't remi-" Renegade Gutlang was cut off by an extremely large energy blast coming from a nearby mining asteroid, and as soon as it appeared, it vanished.

"What the 'ell?" Patrick immediately reacted to the reading.

Renegade knew what had happened immediately, it was an explosion, probably used to blow something away. But there was only one material that could stand up to an attack like that… He had to be sure. "Everyone turn your radios on the open channel and **JUST LISTEN!**"

They flipped on the radios and heard three voices talking, a young one, a loud one, and a firm one, "Here we go, latch some onto my back, Ralph," the firm voice faded out and the loud one took over, "Ok! There we go! Oh… we are gonna be **RICH**! Now latch it on my back," then the young voice took over, "Alright, now we just have to get this Gundariam back to the dock…"

Renegade flipped it off, for he had heard and recorded what he needed to hear. He let out a maniacal laugh that made him famous aboard the _Wasp._ "Ha ha ha… lets go you two!" With an evil smirk, he led the three of them to the asteroid, Zaku machine guns primed, the Zakus' gleaming eyes staring dead on at their target…

The Asteroid.

---

As the three young men headed out of the tunnel something happened that caught Colal's eye. The green lights that represented other pods flashed out on his radar screen and were replaced with three yellow ones. 'What…?'

Jake neared the exit to the tunnel and, suddenly, something flashed in his head, making him pull back the pod quickly. As he looked at where he just was, a round of machine gun fire pounded into the ground. 'How…?'

Ralph peered over the edge of the hole they had to leave and saw four destroyed worker pods, smoldering out of the rock. 'Huh…?'

Colal led them out of the tunnel, and he saw something that will be scarred in his memory forever…

There were three green, giant, humanoid robots, flying down from space. The shield-like shoulders that they had bore a small, yellow symbol. Colal recognized the symbol immediately.

The Principality of Zeon.

One of the robots pink monochrome eyes turned and saw him. It raised its arm, and the three changed their direction toward Colal, Jake, and Ralph.

"Shit," Colal whispered, "Shit."

---

Well that's it… There IS gonna be a fight scene in the next chapter so don't worry about lack of action. Please review!


	2. The Federation and Zeon

I thank you, ChokutoSaLance, for being the only one to review. The chapters will be longer, I promise. Also, I apologize for the extreme delay, it won't happen again. I kind of lost the inspiration for this story a while ago, but it is back now, AND I PLAN TO WRITE!!! =}

"Shit," Colal whispered, "shit."

He stared dead into the eye of the center Zaku slowly approaching him. He grunted, and mumbled to his teammates, "These guys aren't taking prisoners, boys. I never wanted to do this, not in a million years, but we're gonna have to fight 'em."

"Fight ZEON?" Ralph's hushed voice responded quickly, "Are you MAD? We'll be dead in a minute! They're trained soldiers! We're **miners**, Colal, **miners**. Not soldiers!"

Jake's reaction was completely different. "Heh, you scared, Ralph? We could take a couple of hot shot Zeons any day. I say, bring 'em on!"

"Well we need to choose," Colal said, "and right now!"

---

Renegade gave another evil smirk as the Pods drew closer to them. 'Another group of easy kills,' he thought, 'the new marks will look nice on my Zaku's shoulder…' His bloody fantasies were interrupted when he noticed the Pods' cannons. 'What the hell? They shouldn't have weapons! They're just miners! Damn, this just got a lot more complicated…' He flicked the open channel on his radio on again, and spoke out to the miners. "Attention asteroid work crew, this is Lieutenant Renegade Gutlang of the Principality of Zeon _Wasp_ Squadron," he announced officially, "Please stand down and you will not be harmed, I repeat, you will not be harmed." He flicked off the radio, and waited for their unconditional surrender.

It never came.

Little did Renegade know, the man he just gave all his information to would soon become his mortal enemy for the rest of his life.

---

Colal had to think quickly, he was staring down the barrels of three Zaku Machine Guns and had two choices: surrender or fight.

Either way, he could die.

Unfortunately, he was not the best at odds and gambling, that was Jake's department. Colal was more of a cold, ruthless tactician who knew how to plan things out beforehand, and be able to adapt his plan to whatever new obstacle came in its way. He did not ever find a need for this elaborate planning, however, and never really tried using his powerful mind. However, this pressure he was feeling kicked everything into gear, and he began to formulate a plan.

'Do or die,' he thought.

---

Jake was getting tense; he was waiting for an order from Colal. Though Colal was in no way superior to Jake and Ralph in terms of rank, the two of them treated him like a Commander, he gave the orders, he called the shots. His hands tightened on the controls, he could only hope his 'Commander' was smart enough to make the right decision.

---

A bead of sweat rolled down Ralph's forehead, and his fingers tapped his legs impatiently. He always had a nervous habit of doing that, it was his dead giveaway in poker. He knew that Jake was right, they needed to fight Zeon.

If he wasn't so damn afraid, he'd say it out loud.

---

Colal's plan was finished. He was gonna need complete cooperation, quick reactions, and a hell of a lot of luck from his teammates. He took a deep breath, and allowed his muscles to relax. "Okay," he muttered to himself, "here we go…" He flicked on the radio. "Attention, Renegade Gutlang, this is Colal Canze, the leader of these miners. We hereby surrender in compliance with your request."

He was extremely lucky; two of the Zaku's lowered their machine guns. The middle one, the leader, did not. 'Now or never…!' he thought. He gripped the two handles in his cockpit tightly, and his Pod zoomed forward. The other two began to raise their machine guns, but they were too late. Colal fired off a round from his Pod's cannon. The 180 millimeter round collided with the center Zaku's machine gun, blowing the weapon out of its hands. Now he had to hope Jake and Ralph followed his lead.

He knew at least Jake was when his voice leapt through the channel. "That's the spirit, Colal!" He then heard another round fire off, meeting the Zaku on the right hand side clean in the head.

"Damn!" a very Irish voice yelled. Obviously this Irish man was Jake's target. His Zaku fell backwards, machine gun firing into space.

By this point, Colal had reached the center Zaku, which was now reaching for his Heat Hawk. He swung his Pod's right mining claw out, and it collided with the Zaku's right knee. He didn't stop the Pod, and the steel gave under the pressure. He could almost feel the claw ripping the Zaku's leg off at the knee. The Zaku immediately lost its balance and collapsed, nearly crushing Colal's pod in the process. "Damn!" Colal couldn't help yelling as he was nearly smashed by the massive Mobile Suit.

Colal immediately swung his view around to see the third Zaku's machine gun pointed at him. "You're dead!" the pilot screamed, his Zaku's finger tightening on the trigger. Colal clenched his teeth and closed his eyes, expecting the end. He heard a loud bang, and after a few seconds later, realizing he was not dead, opened his eyes, and was shocked at the sight.

Ralph had hit the Zaku on the right elbow joint, blowing off the weapon arm. The Zaku's right forearm drifted away helplessly into space, the machinegun going with it. "How the HELL do you like **THAT!**" Ralph screamed through the radio's open channel, and lined up another shot.

"Ralph, that's enough!" Colal hollered at him, hoping to avoid unnecessary death. Ralph stood down, and backed his Pod up, trying to get out while he still could. Jake however, had other plans.

"**GO TO HELL, YOU ZEON BASTARD**!" he snarled out as his Pod slammed forward, approaching the Zaku he had knocked over.

Colal heard bloodlust in Jake's voice. "Jake, that's enough!" he commanded.

Jake did not stop.

Renegade foresaw what Jake was about to do. "Call off your men, Canze! We give!" he shouted through the radio.

"Jake, STAND DOWN!"

"STOP HIM CANZE!"

"NO, STOP, **JAKE**!"

By this point, Jake had reached the Mobile Suit he had attacked. The thrusters on the back of his pod activated, and he flew up slightly. He then made his pod dive into the Zaku's chest. He lined up his cannon with the Zaku's stomach.

Patrick was terrified. "Renegade! 'El-"

The pod fired.

It all seemed to happen in slow motion. The stomach of the Zaku caved in, and fire began to leap out of it. Jake's pod hopped away before the whole Zaku was engulfed in the hellish fire and exploded. It was both a beautiful and horrid sight.

Renegade sat there, in his cockpit, slack jawed, and disbelieving. '_Patrick is… dead? No, it can't be… but it is… no… No… NO…__**NOOOO!!!**_**' "WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" **he screamed, tears leaking from his eyes. "Murdering… bastards…" he whimpered. "Zola, we are in no condition to fight. They are letting us pull back, so we must do it."

"But Renega-"

"NO BUTS! WE LEAVE NOW!" he roared, still crying. "Canze… I will never forget this. I swear on my life that you will pay for what your men have done… DO YOU HEAR ME? IF IT IS THE LAST THING I DO, NO MATTER WHAT, YOU WILL DIE BY MY HANDS!"

"Then you will have a sad and pathetic existence trying to kill me. Because you will not succeed." Colal replied coldly.

"We… shall… see…" And then the two remaining Zakus flew into space.

Colal slammed his fist into the Pod's control board. "What the unholy Hell were you thinking Jake?"

"I-I-I-I don't know… for just one second I lost all control… and now I… I… I'm a murderer…" Jake was on the verge of tears, horrified of himself.

"C-come on Jake," Ralph stuttered out, "let's get back to the deck, and we'll get you some coffee or something, and then-"

Ralph was cut off by a booming voice coming through his radio. "Attention, all who were involved in the recent battle are to stand down immediately, disarm, or you will be destroyed. I repeat…"

Colal put his head in his hands, groaned, and slammed his fists down on the control panel of his pod. "Dammit!" he hissed, "Not more!"

He looked up, but he did not see a Zeon mobile suit, or a Zeon warship. No, Colal saw something extremely unexpected. A large warship, a _Salamis_ class, was flying imposingly toward the mining asteroid. A Federation warship.

Colal sighed, lowered his Pod to the asteroid, and opened the cockpit to show his surrender. "Do it, you two. This one, we can't win."

---

Not even ten minutes after Patrick Jennings had died, the three miners found themselves aboard the Federation _Salamis _Class warship, _Breaker._ The 'leader,' Colal, had found himself in an interrogation room. The room was rather small, 2 meters by 2 meters by 2 meters, Colal guessed. It was like being trapped in a small box, good thing Ralph wasn't in here, the poor fellow was claustrophobic. The room itself was a light lime-green color, and it was featureless besides the playing card table in the middle of the room, which was solid white, and made all of plastic. Colal was sitting down in a folding chair that had him sitting across the table from the only door.

Colal was worried about Jake and Ralph. As far as he knew, Ralph and Jake could be dead, in another interrogation room, walking free, or worshipped like gods. That was the only thing that bothered him, not knowing the status of his friends. After what had seemed like an eternity of waiting an old man entered, wearing a different uniform than the ones he had seen on the people that put him in here. Judging by his age and uniform, Colal assumed that this man was the Captain of this warship. If he wasn't he could have fooled anyone, he was wearing an old-fashioned seafaring captain's hat, he had a scruffy white beard that went down to the end of his sternum, he was even smoking a pipe!

The two men stared each other down, the 'Captain's' black eyes seemingly looking right through Colal. Colal returned the man's fierce stare with one of his own, his piercing blue eyes staring daggers at the elderly gentleman. Another eternity of waiting came for Colal, as time seemed to freeze around the two of them. Finally, the old man spoke in a quiet, solemn voice. "Good day, sir. I am Captain Wallace Coret Breaker. May I ask for your name?"

He _seemed_ kind, but Colal wouldn't be shocked if it was all just a disguise. Maybe they would try to pull the old good cop, bad cop trick on him. "My name," Colal replied in a cautious tone, "is Colal Jerome Canze. The other two with me," Colal continued, "are named Jake Splinter and Ralph Careener." Colal then waited to see where the other man would take the conversation from here.

"Ah, I see," the old man replied, "Thank you for answering my next question!" The old man chuckled slightly, then coughed twice, and cleared his throat. '_Oh for the love of…_' Colal thought as he listened to the old man, '_This guy _must _be the life of the party on this ship…_' As soon as Wallace regained his composure, he began talking again. "Would you please tell me, which one of the two is the young man who is bawling his eyes out, saying 'I'm a murderer, I'm a killer.'?"

'_Ah-ha!_' Colal suddenly realized that he was trying to imprison Jake. He remained silent. "No answer, hm?" Wallace said in a slightly angered tone, "Listen boy, there are two simple ways of doing this. Painless interrogation, which is just a simple question and answer conversation, or painful interrogation, in which we strap you down and _torture_ you until you tell us. We are permitted to do either. You should consider yourself lucky I'm even giving you the first option! So what's it gonna be, _**BOY?**_" As he said boy, his fist slammed down on the plastic table in front of him. Colal held firm to his silence. "I see…" Wallace said, eerily calm, "Then… You… Want… _**VIOLENCE!!!**_"

The next thing Colal knew, his face had the old man's fist in it. For an elderly man, Wallace was quite fast and strong. Colal went flying back, his glasses knocked from his face. Since the room was so small, Colal's head quickly hit against the wall behind him. He sunk to the floor. However, Wallace would not give him a moment to breathe. He grabbed the younger man by collar, and brought him up to his eye-level. He then proceeded to beat Colal's face brutally. Colal felt his nose break from the merciless barrage upon his face. After about a dozen punches, Wallace lifted him up even higher, then turned and threw Colal to the ground. Colal's body crashed on the poker table, and he rolled over and crashed into the other wall, landing on the ground face up. Not even a second after a second after his body touched the floor, he felt a boot crushing his ribs. Colal's body was in horrific pain, but he did not grunt, groan, or scream. He took this abuse in complete silence.

"Talk boy!" Wallace barked. He lifted his foot up, and stepped on Colal's ribs again. "Talk!" he repeated the stomping motion. "Talk, dammit!" he lifted his foot again, but this time, Colal did something. He grabbed the ankle that Wallace still had on the ground, and he pulled the old man's foot out from under him, making him fall back onto the table. Colal struggled to his feet quickly, and as Wallace was trying to recover, Colal punched him across the jaw. Wallace crashed, face-first, into the wall. He coughed up blood and backed into the corner of the room, panting and attempting to stand up.

Colal walked to the other side of the room and recovered his glasses. He looked at them, and he saw that the left lens was cracked. He looked in the right lens and saw his reflection. There was blood leaking from his nose and mouth, which he wiped away. As he put his glasses back on, he turned and saw Wallace walking out the door. Before it shut, he turned around, looked Colal over, and murmured, "You'll do… You'll do well…"

After the door shut, Colal heard a sealing sound coming from it. Knowing it had locked; he walked back over to the folding chair and sat down. He moved his hand to his nose to wipe more blood from it. As he touched his nose, he flinched away; Wallace had definitely broken it.

There was nothing else for him to do now. Nothing other than to sit there, patiently, and await his fate.

---

Ralph Careener was a pristine man.

Throughout his life, he had maintained a perfect reputation. In school, St. Peter's Catholic Academy, he was deemed perfect by his teachers. He had never received a single demerit in his life, and he was well respected for it. Even when he had started to drive, he did no wrong on the road. Not even a single ticket. Once Ralph had made it to college, his behavior became even more impressive. He did not allow a drop of alcohol to touch his lips until he was exactly 21 years of age. He never picked up the disgusting habit of smoking. He never misbehaved for his parents, and he had continued this even on the asteroid.

Yet he was in a prison. On a Federation warship.

Ralph looked over the dark room they were in once again. He sighed and stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans. Jake was on the other side of the room, no longer sobbing, but now he was sitting with his knees pulled to his chin. His eyes seemed distant, and his mind was elsewhere.

The unnatural silence was broken by Jake's voice. "I killed someone."

Ralph looked at him, this was the first time either of them had spoken for the past 45 minutes.

"I've ended a life," he continued. "Somewhere in the world, there's a family whose son will never return home. Maybe he was a husband and father too. Who am I to decide who lives and dies? Those people, his loved ones… The last thing he said to them was probably, 'I'll return soon.' …And he would have if it weren't for me."

Jake paused for about a minute.

"And yet… On the grand scale of things, it's so miniscule. There are over 8 billion people in the solar system. What does the death of a few people matter? We could both die right now. It wouldn't matter.

Jake stood up. "We probably won't even get out of here. The Federation will want this whole thing to blow over. They just shoot us, file an accidental weapon discharge, send a letter to our families, and then send us home in cask-"

Ralph unleashed a right hook on Jake which met him square in the jaw. "Shut up! We do matter, and we will make it out of here! Now stop talking like that or I will beat the shit out of you!"

Jake looked up at Ralph. His eyes were soft and saddened. "You were right to hit me. It's my fault we're in all this. I'm sorry. You're a good friend, Ralph."

Jake then shrunk back to the wall and sat down again, pulling his knees to his chin.

And the silence began again.

---

Colal winced as he wiped more blood from his nose. He wished he at least had some sort of bandage for it. However, most of the bleeding had stopped by this point. Colal looked down at his shirt, and wondered if he could make a bandage out of that.

His wandering thoughts were interrupted as a beautiful woman entered the room follow by two identical broad shouldered men. Her silky black hair was pulled back in a ponytail, and her large brown eyes studied Colal carefully. She had a perfect hourglass figure, was extremely skinny, and Colal couldn't help but notice how _well endowed_ she was. Her face was indescribably beautiful. It took all of Colal's willpower to focus around her. She sat in the same place Wallace sat earlier and looked at him with a smile.

She greeted him kindly, "Hello, Mr. Canze, pleasure to meet you. Would care for anything? Some scotch perhaps?"

"No thank you," Colal declined. He couldn't drink. He needed his mind to stay sharp.

"Alright," she muttered. Colal noticed that her voice, while soft and airy, was thick with a Londoner's accent. She reached into her breast pocket and pulled out a carton of cigarettes. "Smokes?" she offered.

"No thank you, I don't smoke, ma'am," Colal replied.

She took one of the cigarettes out anyway and stuck it in her own mouth. "How about a cigar?" she asked.

Colal considered it for a moment. "Ah, the hell with it. Sure, I'll take one. You got Martians?"

"Sure do. Tristan! Cigar!" she shouted at one of the men. He reached inside his jacket and pulled one out, giving it to her. She, in turn, gave it to Colal, and he bit the end off and stuck it in his mouth. She took out a lighter and lit both the cigar and her cigarette.

They both sat there as smoke gathered in the room and slid out through the vents. When the woman's cigarette burned all the way down, she licked her index finger and thumb and put it out. She then started conversation with Colal. "Do you know what you did was a war crime, Mr. Canze?"

'_What?'_ Colal thought, alarmed. '_What does she mean?_' He tried to change the topic of the conversation. "Mars really is a great place for cigars," he remarked. "How do you think they make them this good?"

The woman sighed, and her smile faded. "I'll take that as a no. You and friends were in possession of military grade weaponry. That is _illegal_. Also, we examined your Pods' audio records-"

Colal interrupted her, "Excuse me, but what are audio records?"

"Audio records," she explained, "are, as the records of what you say when you're in the cockpits of your Pods. The recorders were probably installed so the supervisor could keep tabs on you all. He would be able to make sure that no one plotted any sort of uprising against him or hide any deposits of Gundariam you found.

"Now," she continued, "as I was saying, we examined your Pods' audio records, and we found that you had made a false surrender. That is a _war crime._ Do you understand how serious that is?"

Colal responded confidently, "I am fully aware of the punishments for war crimes." Colal was not intimidated by her threats. He could not show weakness.

"Good," she replied, "I took a good 20 minutes explaining it to your rather stupid friends." Colal agreed with her. His friends _were_ rather stupid. "Now, Mr. Canze, I am going to give you a choice."

'_Oh great_,' Colal thought, '_I'm going to get to choose which gun they shoot me with. How fun.' _

"You could take on the full responsibility of your crimes. That is your first option. Or, you could take the alternative. We have studied video footage of your fight against the Zakus, and footage of your fight against Captain Breaker. You are a fearless, ruthless, and powerful fighter. You also think well on your feet and formulate plans quickly. Your alternative option is to join the Federation forces," she stated simply.

"What?" Colal exclaimed, flabbergasted, "How could you let me join the Federation after what I've done?"

"Simply because we need people like you three. You are all extremely talented in your own rights. I'm going to be honest with you, Mr. Canze. We are preparing to go into full fledged war against Zeon with our mobile suits. We can't throw away talent like yours. I extended the same offer to your friends, but they preferred to have you decide for them. They have faith in you Canze. That's why we are giving a very special position to you. Your friends will be recruited as Lieutenants, but you will be given the rank of Lieutenant Commander. That will put you as the direct superior of the other to-be pilots on the ship. You can be a great leader. We gathered that from your friends and personal record. So what do you say Canze?" she reached her hand out to him. "Will you join us?"

"So it's up to me to decide the fate of three men," Colal Canze chuckled, "I knew when I met those boys that their lives would rest on my shoulders. I _knew _it." He looked the woman in her deep brown eyes. "I'm sorry, ma'am. I don't think I ever caught your name." '_She really is beautiful_,' he thought.

"Oh, my name is Commander Rose Petunia of the _Breaker_. Now, Mr. Canze, what do you say to our offer?"

Colal chuckled again, "You know what, Rose?" A fierce look burned through his eyes. "You can count me in!"

Rose smirked. "Then let me be the first to say," they both rose, and they shook hands, "welcome to the Earth Federation Special Forces!"

---

A/N: There we go. I'm back!

…

Oh snap! I almost forgot!

Disclaimer: I own MY characters and nothing more.

Review please!


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